Bennett
Tresa Waggoner doesn’t love the devil. She loves the opera. In a small town where small minds hold too much sway, that could cost her her job as a music teacher.
Bennett’s school superintendent and its school board members huddled in secret Thursday night to discuss Waggoner’s punishment for showing first-, second- and third-graders portions of the videotape “Who’s Afraid of Opera?”
The tape includes scenes from the opera “Faust,” which is about a guy who sells his soul to the devil. But Waggoner didn’t play the video to promote Satan. She found the tape in the school music library and showed it in anticipation of a performance by Opera Colorado.
For exposing children to something subtitled “Introduction to the joys of opera for children with Joan Sutherland,” Waggoner was put on paid administrative leave 2 1/2 weeks ago. Thursday night, it was clear her job is in serious jeopardy.
That is because while most of us know Sutherland as a great singer, a handful of hysterical Bennett parents – including the wife of a school board member – seem to have mistaken her for a character in “The Exorcist.”
Officials announced no decision about Waggoner’s employment Thursday. But board President Brent Walden only allowed five speakers to talk about Waggoner’s job. It was small-town politics at its best. And worst.
All five speakers pleaded for the Board of Education to stop a “witch hunt.”
Americans find the behavior of Muslims protesting editorial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad “ignorant and hopeless,” said resident Chuck Saxton. But the demand by Christians for Waggoner’s job for showing an opera video with the devil is almost as narrow-minded.
Although a few folks hooted like the “Church Lady” of “Saturday Night Live,” Waggoner said only 11 of her 200 music students were “pulled” from her classes.
“I hope we don’t let a few parents set policy,” said Cindy Bulinski.
“Faust,” added Vicki Blum, “leaves the message that if you follow the devil, very, very bad things happen.”
That didn’t matter to Cory Babi, wife of school board member Michael Babi.
“My child saw this video and came home and asked me what abortion was and what suicide was,” she charged.
Waggoner insists the video doesn’t mention abortion. Still, the rumor in Bennett is that Babi’s husband and his school board buddies have already decided that Waggoner must go and that Superintendent George Sauter, who legally makes firing decisions, will do their bidding.
This was never clearer than when Vicki Blum’s husband, Casey, sitting behind Cory Babi and other Waggoner foes, rose to tell board members: “While we’re talking (about how good Waggoner teaches), the people in the row in front of me are saying it doesn’t matter what we say, she’s already gone.”
Late Thursday night, Waggoner still had not heard from Sauter.
Sauter, on the other hand, had heard from Bennett Town Board member Rich Pulliam. Pulliam’s son saw the supposedly offensive opera video. He found it much less scary than the first two Harry Potter movies. “Our son,” Pulliam wrote to Sauter, “was seemingly unaffected by the video but has been extremely affected by the behavior of the more extreme adults in the community.”
“Do we look like bumpkins?” Pulliam asked me after the board meeting ended.
Let’s put it this way. Bennett canceled the Opera Colorado production of “Island of Tulipatan.” “My understanding is that the opera has what are called ‘pants roles,’ where girls dress as boys and boys dress as girls, and they weren’t comfortable with that,” said Opera Colorado marketing director Becky Lathrop.
If you want a bumpkin meter, there it is. “Island of Tulipatan” has no purpose “except to make people laugh,” said Opera Colorado general director Peter Russell. It has as much to do with transvestites as a Joan Sutherland tape has to do with exorcism. If they don’t get that in Bennett, there’s no question who’s afraid of opera.
And it isn’t the kids.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
